Interested in starting your own entrepreneurial journey in health and wellness but unsure what to expect? Then read up on our interview with Jodi Neuhauser, co-founder and CEO of Ovaterra, located in New York, NY, USA.

What's your business, and who are your customers?

I am the co-founder and CEO of Ovaterra, a women-led, leading lifestyle reproductive health company. We provide the guidance you wish your doctor had time to give you throughout your fertility journey. Ova comes from the egg, the beginning, wholeness, and nourishment. Terra is our systemic foundation, a natural, fertile ground for growth. We start from the beginning, from who you are at a cellular level, and help you build an understanding of your holistic health through a reproductive lens.

We help guide couples through their fertility journey through technology, content, and commerce. Our mission is to simplify the complex fertility journey in a way that empowers you with information about your life-long health.

Tell us about yourself

I believe that knowledge is power. And when each of us, especially women, has information about our health and our bodies, we can take action and plan for the future. We are making reproductive health a dinner-table topic while helping to augment a broken healthcare system. We need to democratize access to pre-pregnancy care, which currently is only geographically and financially accessible to the upper echelons of society.

Right now, 60% of women would fail a test about their own fertility, and only 12% of us would accurately predict our fertility window. One of the top regrets I hear from women is, “I wish I would have known more sooner.” We are setting out to change that by providing a one-stop platform that reduces the overwhelm of the conception journey by prioritizing the products, services, and content you need when you need it.

What's your biggest accomplishment as a business owner?

Making an impact on feminine health and reproduction. As women’s reproductive health takes center stage, we are part of an exciting time in women’s health. There are so many women building amazing companies that will drive the future of women’s health research, the customer experience, and in-clinic care.

I’m excited about all of the ideas and entrepreneurs identifying severe and chronic problems of feminine health and doing something about it by building billion-dollar solutions. I’m honored and humbled to have an opportunity to aggregate those solutions into a best-in-class platform, driving more couples to those products, services, and care faster.

What's one of the hardest things that come with being a business owner?

Putting your own needs first. As a business owner and as a mom, I prioritize everyone else’s needs before mine. I’ve learned to build a team around me that supports me physically, emotionally, mentally, spiritually, and professionally. We have athletic coaches for sports teams; why not have them in every other aspect of our lives?

What are the top tips you'd give to anyone looking to start, run and grow a business today?

  1. Don’t take things personally. The freedom to let go of the things you take personally opens up significantly more doors than worrying about what others think of you.
  2. Build a team. It’s ok to ask for help. When I first started as a co-founder/CEO, I thought I needed to do it all, learn it all and solve it all to show value. But the true value is in building a team that complements each other's strengths in order to move forward faster together.
  3. It’s ok to be still and rest. As a former New Yorker, I packed my days from 5 am to 11 pm. I felt guilty for resting. I didn’t want to slow down and sit with my thoughts. But actually, that stillness is where some of my most creative ideas have come from, and now I make a conscious effort with strong boundaries to schedule rest and stillness into my life.

Is there anything else you'd like to share?

Know Your Body. You are the only one trained in you. Your doctors and specialists are trained in their silo of information, but you are the only one who can interpret and advocate for what it means for you. When I was training for the Ironman, I had lots of different coaches and specialists on my team helping me on the way, but I was the only one who could look across the system that is my body and know how everything was working together and therefore advocate for what I need from each of them. There are more and more at-home and telehealth resources now – this will only continue to get easier.

Understand the impact of your environment on your health. Not just the air you breathe, but the products in your home and everyday life. Our government doesn’t protect consumers in the same way as other countries, so the responsibility is in our hands to learn how what we put in, on, and around our body impacts everything about our health down to a cellular level. When I was preparing to freeze my eggs, I researched endocrine-disrupting chemicals, which have a huge impact on fertility due to how they affect hormone levels. I threw out almost everything I was using on a daily basis and replaced those products with safer alternatives for reproduction.

Where can people find you and your business?

Website: https://myovaterra.com/
Instagram: https://www.instagram.com/jodi_neuhauser/
LinkedIn: https://www.linkedin.com/in/jodineuhauser/

If you like what you've read here and have your own story as a solopreneur that you'd like to share, then email community@subkit.com; we'd love to feature your journey on these pages.

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